Falling Star
by Coldpaws
Summary: Batman lifts his eyes to the sky just in time to witness his worst nightmare. Contains mild slash Bruce/Clark.


Wrote this a while ago, just decided to upload it here for safe-keeping.

Title: Falling Star

Author: co1dpaws

Fandom: Justice League (comics)

Pairing: Clark/Bruce

Rating: PG

Word count: 931

Spoilers etc.: none

Disclaimer: Superman/Clark Kent and Batman/Bruce Wayne are the sole property of DC comics and their creators Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, Bob Kane, and Bill Finger

Summary: Batman lifts his eyes to the sky just in time to witness his worst nightmare.

NOTE: This fic does contain mild slash. Nothing explicit.

**Falling Star**

_I wish a falling star could fall forever_

_And sparkle through the clouds and stormy weather_

_And in the darkness of the night_

_The star would shine a glimmering light_

_And hover above our love_

Batman rolls away from the fiery whip, laying down a handful of pellets at the demon's feet. A pause, then the pellets release and cover the smoking monster in flame smothering carbon dioxide. That demon's fire extinguished, Batman turns to survey the rest of the ground forces.

The Justice League closes in on the remnants of the demonic forces, summoned from below by yet another aspiring world conqueror. Batman lifts his eyes to the sky just in time to witness his worst nightmare.

Superman plummets from a cluster of gargoyles. Batman leaps, scrapes, rolls over the crumbling dunes of rubble.

"Batman to Wonder Woman, Superman's down, I repeat Superman's down!" He shouts into his transmitter. Wonder Woman valiantly tries to push through her own cluster of attackers, to reach, catch, soften Superman's fall, but she can't. Batman arrives soon enough to feel the earth shake as Superman barrels into the ground.

Up over the side of the crater, Batman skids down next to the prone form.

"Superman?" Methodically, he checks for a pulse, breathing. He carefully rolls him onto his side. No. As he steps over the body, Batman's boots squish in the bloody mud Superman had been lying in.

"Batman to Green Lantern, Superman requires emergency medical attention at the watchtower, do you copy?" He wraps his emergency bandages as tightly around the wound as the knife hilt will allow.

"Copy that," Rayner's shaking voice replies. Superman shouldn't need to be carried to the watchtower.

Batman waits. He bandages as many of Superman's other, less mortal wounds as he has supplies for. Superman continues to pale while his uniform and the earth around him continue to darken.

Long after Green Lantern arrives, after he applies more pressure and support with his ring, carries Superman on a stretcher, in a bubble, up, up, and away into the heavens, after the last beasts are returned to the earth, Wonder Woman lands softly beside Batman. His eyes do not leave the starry sky.

"The day is won, Batman." She lays a gentle hand on his shoulder. "The Flash and Green Lantern have offered to take care of clean up." _Everything __**here**__ is taken care of_. She does not say. _You can take care of __**him**__ now._

The Bat-jet glides silently out into the night.

_Please hold me close and whisper that you love me_

_And promise that your dreams are only of me_

_When you are near, everything's clear_

_Earth is a beautiful heaven_

_Always I hope that we follow the star_

_And be forever floating above_

Clark wakes up in a dark and quiet room. He takes in a deep breath, then hitches, letting the air out delicately not to disturb his wound again.

"Clark?" His head rolls right, and he can see a dark silhouette cut out from the starry window. Bruce leans, reaches out his hand.

"No," Bruce's arm stops in midair. Clark clears his throat, begins again. "No, you can leave it off." Bruce settles back into the chair. "I always like how you look in starlight" Clark explains.

"Here," Bruce says, and after a moment, Bruce lifts a glass to his lips, helps his head up. The gloriously refreshing water glides down his throat. Even in this, though, Bruce's arm is tense against his neck.

"I'm fine." Clark placates him after the glass is back on the table.

"You were stabbed to the hilt with a 9 inch serrated dagger! You lost approximately 35 blood volume before you arrived at the tower, your liver and right lung required 22 stitches, you-"

"And J'onn removed the knife, gave me the blood we'd put aside, and stitched me up. Tomorrow you'll hardly know anything had happened." Clark pretends not to see the sulk forming on Bruce's face. The pause in their argument is enough to know he's getting somewhere.

"You shouldn't even have been there in the first place. The League is perfectly capable of handling that level of threat without you."

"Bruce-"

"No, Clark, you know you're vulnerable to magic. You shouldn't have been there. You shouldn't be the one who-" Bruce cuts off. _The one who what?_ Clark thinks. _The one of us who dies first?_

"Well, I was there. Now I'm here, and I'm fine." Clark can't help the bit of stubbornness that creeps into his voice, his hands griping the bed sheets. Bruce stares at the floor.

After a while, Clark begins to inch his way left in the bed. Bruce stands up and leans over to help, almost falling into Clark himself but hitting the bed instead. He turns to get up, falling backwards again as Clark grips the nape of his T-shirt.

"Lie down. No, under the covers." Bruce obeys, and they settle in, spooned, facing the window.

"The best part of the watchtower is the view." Clark proclaims at the swath of glittering lights laid out before them. Bruce hmms, although Clark can't tell whether it's an "I agree" hmm or a "whatever, you lovable sap" hmm or some other mysterious meaning hmm that Clark hasn't worked out yet this far into their budding relationship. Bruce squeezes his hand under the covers.

Clark falls asleep and dreams of the two of them, young, gazing through his telescope into the beautiful infinite cosmos.

_I know a falling star can't fall forever_

_But let's never stop falling in love_

**Fin**

Author's Note: The lyrics in this fic come from the song "Let's Never Stop Falling in Love" by Pink Martini.

If you have any suggestions for that, stylistically or content wise, please give them!


End file.
